I don't take such an absolutely fideistic approach. There are rational reasons for affirming the existence of the supernatural, but they are too complicated for me to enumerate here. I will post them in a future thread, however. I do, however, think that commitment to any of the faiths out there is non-rational on some level. The goal is to be as ethical a person as possible. I would state that, if a person turned to atheism and improved him or herself ethically thereby, such a person would do better to be an atheist than to cling to whatever distorted version of a religion he or she had been taught. The problem with a viewpoint such as atheism is not its cosmological implications but rather its moral ones. While atheism is an improvement over a religion that actively promoted evil deeds, such as an extremist cult, if taken to an extreme it leads to a nihilist approach to ethics. If I believed that what I did was meaningless, that we are all nothing more than the sum of our parts and that we die and rot, how could I maintain the morale necessary to lead an ethical life? In the long run, I could not, and I doubt that anyone could. For that reason, I think that most people who profess non-religion are unconventionally religious and do not realize it. Then the question is asked: Why Christianity? Well, it has certain unique themes that, if followed honestly, take us to our maximum ethical potential. Judaism and Islam preach discipline, but although many Jews and Muslims practice forgiveness in their daily lives, there is nothing in their beliefs that requires that we forgive the wrongs of others. Christianity preaches this forgiveness, along with discipline and a theme of redemption (i.e. The Resurrection) that does not exist in any other religion. These are only a few of the reasons Christianity conforms to and improves our ability to follow our a priori ethics. Eastern religions, in general, tend to be too vague for practical application. They delve into great mysteries, but they tend to raise more questions than they give answers. That is fine from a purely philosophical viewpoint, which is why Eastern thought has influenced me to some degree, but for a religion to be ideal, it must give answers to the daily ethical dilemmas that we all face.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)